Cover Lessons for KS3 English
For Years 7, 8 and 9
15 fully resourced, tried-and-tested cover lessons (5 per year group) to cater for staff absences. You’ll always have a structured, stand-alone lesson that’s relevant to the curriculum – even when there’s no time to prepare!
Keep students engaged and on task…Well planned with thoughtful, varied activities
- “Thoughtful”, “accessible” activities that ensure engagement for the whole lesson, with creative extension tasks to challenge fast finishers
- Covering a diverse range of topics for reading and writing, from meeting a Bond-style villain to creating a Frankenstein-style recipe or being stranded on a Lord of the Flies-style desert island
- Includes “engaging” extracts from a range of authors across prose and drama – from Hardy and Horowitz to Shakespeare and Shelley
One of the highest quality resources I’ve seen in a while
- Lesson overview grid and clear learning outcomes – designed to cover KS3 curriculum requirements to allow you to choose a lesson that fits with your SoW
- Self-contained student worksheets with minimal photocopying and only standard classroom equipment required – great for non-specialists!
- Answers provided for quick peer-marking or by teacher on return to work
Lessons include: Year 7: Shakespeare and the Globe Theatre; A Meeting with a Villain; What’s the weather like today?; In the Fast Lane; Protecting the Planet; Year 8: Creating a Character; Trickery in Love; Survival; Town and Country; Casting a Spell; Gothic Horror; Year 9: Attitudes to the First World War; Young Love; Union and Division; What does the future hold?
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What do teachers say about this resource? (11296)
A godsend for a cover supervisor... Lessons are engaging, using clear language and a range of interesting activities... The activities all build English skills, but are standalone so could be used in isolation for an unexpected cover lesson... This resource encourages wider reading and thinking and would definitely support schools to keep delivering high quality teaching.
I absolutely love this resource! Where has it been all my life? I love the range of different Literature and Language activities which could be set in a seconds notice for emergency and planned cover. I really enjoyed the activities... This resource will allow teachers and HODs to quickly set meaningful cover work for a class... It will allow a class to complete some high-quality work without the need of an English specialist present... An excellent resource - credit to the author!
The content is really high quality and is suitable for KS3 pupils - all very accessible for this age group whilst providing challenge too.
I like the way the tasks for each year group become more difficult.
I like the way reading and writing tasks are included for each task. This would add flexibility to set cover which fits in with what the class are working on. Likewise reading texts that cover the three genres of drama, prose and poetry also add this flexibility and mean that the tasks can be slotted in to most units of work as stand alone lessons. The answers page for each task is perfect for a cover lesson where the teacher may not be a subject specialist.
Great range of tasks which cover the requirements of the KS3 curriculum.
All the activities are great and enhance learning.
There is a useful overview grid at the start to quickly identify which lesson to use.
I like the way each lesson follows a similar format and the sequencing of tasks enables understanding- the tasks become more difficult as the lesson progresses.
There is lots of help for students to complete the tasks independently in a cover lesson with sentence starters, planning ideas etc. The use of visual pictures and symbols also helps with this.
A well-written with an excellent range of age-appropriate tasks. It does what it promises in the introduction. It features a clear lesson overview, making it easy to select an appropriate resource and even provides details of preparation requirements and how to use those resource, making it both teacher and student friendly... ace. Extension tasks are provided, and appropriate answers are given. The worksheets are designed to be student-friendly, with clear examples, instructions and suggestions. I liked the mix of formal texts with informal instructions, which were encouraging and positive. Writing tasks were directly linked to reading tasks... The worksheets allow independent learning, with minimal teacher input. They are appropriately designated for all age groups across Key Stage 3... It focuses on reading and writing, but includes speaking and listening... A very useful resource.
The resource is well planned with thoughtful, varied activities. The answers are useful for a non-specialist teacher and I like the balance between reading and writing activities in each lesson.
The lessons link well with the NC resources.
The activities are accessible to all students and the extension task means that the activities will definitely last the whole lesson without students getting bored.
I liked the icons used for each task to promote consistency for the students.
The extracts selected were engaging for students and the glossaries will help to build confidence.
The resource has been designed to compliment the NC and these links are made clear in the guidance for teachers. Opportunities for reading and writing are linked and provided in all lessons. This gives flexibility to the school but also matches the broad purpose of KS3 English well.
This teacher clearly is knowledgeable about literature and effectively supporting students - the resource reflects this and would be easy to implement in classrooms.
The layout is uncluttered and clear - the icons are used well.
The lessons are engaging and fun - I would have enjoyed doing these myself in the absence of a teacher.
The writing tasks are well-scaffolded with the sentence starters.
These lessons are not just ‘busy work’ - they are meaningful and challenging. As an absent teacher, I would feel like my students were doing useful work.
[The resource] attends to important skills and gives students authentic practice in the type of tasks they meet in assessments.
This is one of the highest quality resources I’ve seen in a while. It’s practical and does what teachers are paying for - saves time.